Expect Bruins coach Claude Julien to keep rotation in motion.

Coach Claude Julien has started to change his lineup regularly, almost regardless of players' performance. The coach says the Bruins have enough depth to keep every player in the mix, without it impacting the team's quality of play.

He often caution those who ask about his lineup that nothing is etched in stone, but like many coaches, Claude Julien isn’t totally against the concept of using a hammer and chisel when he can, either.

This season, so far, has been a bit different. Julien’s recent rotation of the Bruins’ defensemen has attracted a good amount of attention, but he’s shifting people at other positions, too, and may even be about to ramp the rotations up.

“It’s a maneuver I think I can afford to do right now,” Julien said after Monday’s practice at Ristuccia Arena, “and I think it’s necessary for me to do right now.”

The B’s used an identical lineup for the first three games of the season, after which Julien added defenseman Matt Bartkowski to the mix. Dougie Hamilton (two games) and Adam McQuaid (one) sat out while Bartkowski played three games in a row, after which he was scratched for Saturday’s 5-0 victory at Tampa Bay.

There have also been ins and outs on the penalty-killing units, where veteran forwards Jarome Iginla and Loui Eriksson have effectively alternated – often, but not always, with Chris Kelly – and now that forward Carl Soderberg’s injured ankle has healed, wingers may start exiting and entering. Soderberg’s return on Saturday meant a seat in the press box for Jordan Caron, who had been a mostly effective third-line wing for the season’s first six games.

“That would be the goal,” Julien said of keeping everyone in the mix. “We certainly don’t want guys sitting in the stands for that long.”

To date, only one of Julien’s moves has been performance-based: One period into the fourth game of the season, on Oct. 12 at Columbus, struggling winger Brad Marchand was dropped to the third line with Kelly and Caron, and Reilly Smith replaced Marchand on the second line with former Dallas teammate Eriksson and Patrice Bergeron.

Soderberg played left wing on Saturday night, with Kelly at center and Marchand on the right side. Marchand and Soderberg had assists on Kelly’s third goal of the season.

“We’re talking about the early part of the season here. When everybody’s playing well, you like to get them in, keep everybody going ... We’re going to make room for those guys to come in at times. It may not always be the same player.”

Julien isn’t trying to mess with his players’ minds. In fact, there’s part of the exercise he doesn’t like.

Interestingly, when players have re-entered the lineup, they’ve tended to become productive. Hamilton and McQuaid both scored goals in their first games after being scratched, and Soderberg had a strong debut.

Julien doesn’t claim to have a magic touch – just a deep roster and competitive players.

“We have players we can put in and out that we know are not going to bring our team down a notch, not going to make our team worse,” he said.

“And it may even make our team better because the guys coming (back) in are hungry.”

AROUND THE BOARDS

The only player on the roster who hasn’t seen action will probably do so Wednesday. With the B’s about to play on consecutive nights for the first time this season, Julien said he’d put backup goalie Chad Johnson “on notice and probably give him an opportunity” tomorrow night against the struggling Sabres (1-8-1) at Buffalo. Tuukka Rask, who has played all seven games so far (5-2-0, 1.29, .954) would presumably return for Thursday ngiht’s home date against San Jose, which got off to the NHL’s best start (7-0-1).